‘Tales from Pioneers & Soldiers Cemetery’ Archives
Ada Mollan, a Pioneer of Mental Health Aid
The Mollan family ran a private hospital on land now part of Matthews Park in the Seward Neighborhood. Ada Mollan, the oldest daughter, matron or proprietress, died on April 15, 1959 at the age of 79. Since the cemetery had been officially closed to future burials in the 1920s, the City Council needed to approve her burial in the family plot. Ada Mollan is buried in Lot 105, Block A with two of her nieces, her grandmother, brother, mother and one of two step-mothers.Photo by Sue Hunter Weir By Sue Hunter Weir Imagine that it”'s 1905 and that someone you love is mentally ill. Medical professionals and the courts recognize that there is such a thing as mental illness but they don”'t know what to do about it. There are no medications to prescribe and talk therapy as doesn”'t exist. The only available “treatment” is confinement in a State Hospital for the Insane or, for less serious cases, a private hospital. The Mollan family ran a private hospital [...]
100th Tale: From Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery
Thank You Sue Hunter Weir Alley Communications, on behalf of hundreds of families and thousands of individuals express our tremendous appreciation to Sue Hunter Weir, local resident historian and writer of 100 “Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery.” The lives of many people have been enriched by her extensive research, honoring of personal stories and legacies, anecdotes, statistics, and personal quotations woven into 100 narratives . Each of the 100 Tales has its own engaging stories so it is remarkable that she can end each “Tale”; the secret of anticipation that keeps readers awaiting the next Tale. Readers need not fear the end of the Series because about 28,000 people (7,000 were moved, but their stories remain) have been buried at this place formerly Layman”'s Cemetery at Lake Street and Cedar Avenue. These stories live on in family photo albums and scrapbooks, websites and oral storytelling traditions. Alley Communications is honored [...]
“The longer you lived, the longer you were likely to live.”
The slightest and subltest “tilt” of the tombstone after many decades of freeze/thaw cycles is one of the hundreds of such examples of Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery “patina.” Of the ages.Abraham Fletcher died on August 25, 1854 at the age of 87. Margaret, who was born in 1772 died in 1861 at the age of 89 years and five days.Margaret and Abraham Fletcher are buried in a family plot (Lot 9, Block B) with four other family members including their son Asa and his wife Nancy. Nancy died in 1865 at the age of 41, and Asa died in 1889 at the age of 81. By Sue Hunter Weir 100th in a Series Abraham Fletcher, born the longest ago -- 1776. People often ask who is the oldest burial in the cemetery. They don”'t mean whose was the first burial or who lived the longest. What they”'re asking is who was born the longest ago. That honor appears to belong to Abraham Fletcher who was born October 13, 1766, in Mendon, Massachusetts. He and his wife [...]
